“What we’ve got to do is to build on the cornerstones of what it means to be middle class in America -- a good job, good wages, a good education, a home, affordable health care, a secure retirement. That’s what we need to focus on.”

“I’ve got to say it’s not always Washington’s highest priority. Because rather than keeping focus on a growing economy that creates good middle-class jobs, we’ve seen a faction of Republicans in Congress suggest that maybe America shouldn’t pay its bills that have already been run up, that we shut down government if they can’t shut down Obamacare.

That won’t grow our economy. That won’t create jobs. That won’t help our middle class. We can’t afford in Washington the usual circus of distractions and political posturing. We can't afford that right now.”

The real highlight of the tour was the appearance of an unexpected protestor in Syracuse:

Because you can never have too many traitors in your midst

It was unclear if she was protesting the conviction of a traitor or was simply in favor of transgender sex reassignment for convicted traitors. Either way, Big Guy handled it with his usual aplomb:

No, no, no, that's fine. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We're okay. We're okay. That's okay. Hold on a second. Hold on. Hold on. Hello, everybody, hello. Hold on. Hold on a minute. Hold on a minute. Hold on. So, now -- hold on a second. (Applause.) Can I just say that as hecklers go, that young lady was very polite. (Laughter.) She was. And (Applause.)

Then he complimented the protestor for being very polite, and noted that:

…she brought up an issue of importance, and that's part of what America is all about.

So of course, they threw her out.

Butt rest assured; as Eqypt burns, battle ships cruise toward Syria and the phony IRS/DOJ/NSA/HHS/EPA/NSA scandals languish in the summer stupor, Big Guy carved time out of his busy schedule to tell a bunch of ill-prepared college kids how he plans to make college “more affordable” in the future. Unfortunately, none of the kids learned beans about basic economics in high school, so they’re still willing to shell out a quarter of a million dollars for a degree in “sociology” or, any other major with no math requirement, from a “prestigious” university - even though they won’t be able to pay it back in their entire productive lifetime.

Among many other good ideas, Big Guy offeredthis suggestion on how to contain college costs:

“This is probably controversial to say, but, what the heck, I’m in my second term, so I can say it,” Obama said. “Law schools would probably be wise to think about being two years instead of three years.”

I’m just guessing here, butt I think that last year might be optional because they focus on constitutional law in the third year.

Anyway, there was also a little time for fun during the “college-bound and down” tour, as captured in this photo at a local soccer practice:

Handicapped by his transparent presidency, BO attempts to advance the ball

Friday, August 23, 2013

It’s sort of like Maggie’s warning about running out of other people’s money; sooner or later you also run out of part-time jobs and people who’ve ‘voluntarily” dropped out of the workforce or joined the ranks of the “disabled.”

University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan [asserts that] ObamaCare discourages hiring, discourages full time employment and discourages businesses from becoming large rather than small.

This is very murky, what’s really going on here?

Let’s have Big Guy himself bring some transparency to the situation; he’s on one of his Big Black Bus tours, addressing middle class issues, so this should be right up his alley.

“At some point, the government’s going to run out of money,” the president said.

No, wait a minute - he was talking about money for higher education, not unemployment:

Mr. Obama said the federal government and colleges have been in a type of financial arms race in recent years, with the government boosting its contributions and schools raising their prices.

“At some point, the government’s going to run out of money,” the president said.

Odd, that’s what some people have been saying about other government funded programs too; Obamacare, for example.

Butt I digress; what the heck’s really going on with unemployment? We’re in the middle of our 4th Summer of Recovery, and just recently pivoted to focus on JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!, how on earth can unemployment be going up?

It’s almost like we’re already running out of other people’s money. What could be going wrong?

Allow me to explain: In order to keep our summer of recovery 4.0 myth alive we’ve had to remove more and more people (7.5 million so far) from the denominator of the unemployment rate calculation. By doing so, we’ve inadvertently dropped our “labor participation rate” to 63% – the lowest in decades!

Because when you’ve established a trend of fewer and fewer people working, you get fewer and fewer people paying taxes to support a government that’s getting bigger and bigger and spending more and more of other people’s money.

In short: we have more and more “spenders” and fewer and fewer “other people.”

See? Economics is really pretty simple if you cut through all the crap.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

It might have been a gang initiation, or just a thrill kill by a bunch of bored, disaffected “yutes.” Either way, Big Guy is not yet aware of it because he’s got much bigger fish to fry right now. So he’ll get back to you when he’s done straightening out the mess he caused in the Middle East.

We ended up with a UN resolution agreeing to give Assad another stern warning and a harsh stare.

Meanwhile, BO issued the following statement:

*See Legal Disclaimer below.

Butt getting back to the yutes who allegedly shot Chris Lane in the back, they are a cross section of America: a black teen, a half-black teen with a white mother and a white kid. Their commonality? They were all Crip gang wannabes who idolized the hip rapper-thug lifestyle of livin’ large and violently. Their iPods were loaded with some of the same “music” that occupies space on Big Guy’s: Ludacris, Jay-Z, Kanye and Lil Wayne.

Apparently BO recognized the dangerous message of rap lyrics, butt he still listens to it because, well it’s cool:

"I am troubled sometimes by the misogyny and materialism of a lot of rap lyrics," he said, "but I think the genius of the art form has shifted the culture and helped to desegregate music."

Some would question whether music really required desegregation, as cross-over artists have been around since the Jazz Age. Butt most would agree with the part about it having “shifted the culture.”

Critics might say that it is shifting it in the wrong direction. As far as Big Guy is concerned though, you could say that if he had a son who was bored, he would’ve looked just like any one of those three boys.

Meanwhile, back to world affairs, I see the cheese-eating French surrender monkeys are now calling for the rest of the world to respond with force if the chemical weapons charges against Syria prove to be true. Let the record reflect that BO concurs: “I swear, if Libya unleashes one more chemical weapon on its own people, they’re going to get one of these.”

Beware the hard stare

*Legal Disclaimer: The Barack Hussein Obama tweet depicted above is not a real tweet. I made it up.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Do you remember when we were very young – about a minute or two into our first historic term? Big Guy dispatched this memorandum to his minions far and wide.

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government. (snip)

Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. (snip)

This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by a party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person. [ed.- small print that means nothing you just read applies unless we say so]

"As Sunshine Week begins, I want to applaud everyone who has worked to increase transparency in government and recommit my administration to be the most open and transparent ever."

So let’s take a 5 year look at how everything’s working out so far: beginning with Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA)requests, because I’m sure you remember how upset people were with George W. Bush when he refused FOIA requests:

“When it comes to implementation of Obama’s wonderful transparency policy goals, especially FOIA policy in particular, there has been far more ‘talk the talk’ rather than ‘walk the walk,’” said Daniel Metcalfe, director of the Department of Justice’s office monitoring the government’s compliance with FOIA requests from 1981 to 2007.

In fact, much to AP’s dismay, analysis demonstrates that the Won has refused far more FOIA requests than even the greatly maligned GWB!! What’s up with that?

Administration lawyers are aggressively fighting FOIA requests at the agency level and in court — sometimes on Obama’s direct orders. They’ve also wielded anti-transparency arguments even bolder than those asserted by the Bush administration.

Nor does it seem that we are going out of our way to thank those in our ranks who are trying to make things more transparent:

The administration has embarked on an unprecedented wave of prosecutions of whistleblowers and alleged leakers — an effort many journalists believe is aimed at blocking national security-related stories. “There just seems to be a disconnect here. You want aggressive journalism abroad; you just don’t want it in the United States,” ABC News correspondent Jake Tapper told White House press secretary Jay Carney at a recent briefing for reporters

Take Benghazi for example.

The Pooh-ba inspects his troops, and finds them unworthy

Nearly a year later we still don’t know what really happened and why we didn’t send the cavalry in to save them. That doesn’t mean somebody doesn’t know; it just means that we can’t handle the truth: Sharyl Attkisson, whose multiple FOIA requests were refused, has been trying to uncover the facts, to no avail:

“What difference, at this point, does it make?”

Butt let’s continue our search for transparency in the most transparent administration ever. How about the NSA phony scandal? How well are we doing with transparency with respect to that? It’s a bit hard to tell, as some portions of the evidence requested has been redacted:

So we turn to Obamcare. Surely the Pooh-ba’s signature legislation is a reflection of his signature transparency policy.

You recall that Obamacare started with the promise that it would be discussed openly in order for the citizens to see everything being proposed. And then, the Pooh-ba promised, every citizen would have at least 72 hours to read it and send their comments to their legislators before it was voted on.

Butt we couldn’t work the terms and conditions for broadcasting the secret closed door bribes and horse trading negotiations required to seal the deal. And because the do-nothing Congress dragged their feet so long on giving in agreeing to our demands reasonable terms for passing the bill so they could find out what was in it, we had to rush the vote through. Because it was Christmas Eve and everyone wanted to get home in time to celebrate the Winter Holiday. So even Congress didn’t get 72 hours to read it so let’s not call it a lie, let’s just say it was a misstatement.

Transparency/opaqueness; it’s the same thing to the Pooh-ba

Anyway, the House Oversight Committee is currently investigating certain terms of Obamacare because, having rushed it through so fast we had a few loose ends we tied up unilaterally:

The administration’s decision to expand subsidies to the federally run health insurance exchanges mandated by Obamacare… it is unclear if the law permits the federal government to extend these subsidies to the federally run exchanges.

The House Oversight Committee slammed the Treasury Department on Thursday for withholding documents related to the committee's investigation of the administration's expansion of subsidies in the ObamaCare exchanges.

And then, there’s this CDC study that some critics are calling a violation of transparency by virtue of omission. You see, instead of trumpeting this landmark gun study, commissioned by our own transparent administration, we just ignored it. Because the results neither met nor exceeded expectations:

For example, the majority of gun-related deaths between 2000 and 2010 were due to suicide and not criminal violence. (snip)

If the president was looking to the CDC report for support on how to reduce the threat of firearm-related violence through legislation restricting the rights of American citizens, he was sorely disappointed. Perhaps that’s why so few of the media have publicized the report. In fact, the only establishment media even to mention the report was the Washington Post, which criticized it for not answering questions that it wasn't asked to answer!

No, no! Don’t shoot!

So, where does that leave our signature program of transparency in government? Let’s just sayit’s evolving:

“In retrospect, ‘open government’ was a bad choice,” former Deputy Chief Technology Officer Beth Noveck wrote in The Huffington Post last year. “It has generated too much confusion. Many people, even in the White House, still assume that open government means transparency about government.”

So, welcome to the world of 21st Century Government. It’s like transparency, only it really isn’t.

“So, Mr Pooh-ba, I see your transparency program is coming along quite well.

All I can say is that this new transparency program, combined with our new gun policy, makes hunting a whole different sport. I’d be very careful about wandering into the 100 Acre Woods if I were the Pooh-ba.

“This--whatever-it-was--has been joined by another--whatever-it-is--and the two of them are now proceeding in company. Would you mind coming with me, Piglet, in case they turn out to be Hostile Animals?"

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

I don’t know where you slept last night, butt the quaint little heartland motel I slept in didn’t carryal Jezowie-America TV, so I missed the big launch of the only real competitor Ms.NBC has for the Muslim propaganda demographic. If you were one of the nearly 200 viewers who tuned in, you witnessed agitprop history being made.

This morning, I surfed on over to Algore’s former CurrentTV web site, to see what I missed, butt instead of CurrentTV, this is what greeted me:

I signed up pronto and was swiftly transported to the official al Jezowie-America website. Leading the lineup was a hard hitting report of the Egyptian military junta’s illegal detention of the most holy, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed (of course) Badie.

Following that report was an expose detailing, from recently declassified documents, the CIA’s evil role in the 1953 Iranian coupe which deposed the most holy, Dr. Mohammed (naturally) Mossadegh.

And let’s give credit where credit is due: al Jezowie would never have been able to file this expose - whipping jihadies into further frenzy - without big Guy’s unprecedented transparency. So let’s just drop all the griping about Team-Obama not being forthcoming. (More on that tomorrow – I arrived at my quaint little heartland motel a little too late last night to file my complete report.)

And finally, one for the Global Warming sect of the al Jezowie congregation: “The day the bees died.” The story blames the death of all the bees in America on genetically modified crops (GMC), global warming, and pesticides. So pick your villain or villains – or add one of your own. Al Jezowie will cover it as long as it involves evil interests in America trying to destroy the world.

“Resistance is futile”

In solidarity, Lady M is launching a limited edition “Golden Bee Pin” for a mere $250,000 donation to OFA (tax deductible of course) that will be used, in part, to promote the “Pollinator-Protection Act of 2013” which will outlaw pesticides, GMC, and place fines on all human activity that Algore considers contributing to global warming. I think you’ll want one:

Because what’s more important than protecting Lady M’s Big White bee colony,

whose honey is used to make Big Guy’s favorite White House Honey Ale?

And if that’s not enough, “Golden Bee Pin” wearers get “Pollinator-Protection Act of 2013” and Obamacare waivers! Are you in?

Monday, August 19, 2013

Unfortunately it’s still August and we all know what happens in August, don’t we? That’s right, everyone in Washington gets all wee weed up.

Butt until that happens I’m taking the slow road home and will be traveling in my air conditioned Jeep Grand Cherokee for the next few days, winding my way through the mountains and by-ways. I’ll probably be passing through places where people still bitterly cling to their guns and religion, stopping for lunch in diners, drive-ins and dives that serve lots of red meat where nobody’s never heard of, let alone eaten, arugula.

It’s an elitist thing; you wouldn’t understand

Tomorrow I’ll be back at work, Charles Kuralt style, to report on how people across America feel about Big Guy’s commitment to and constant pursuit of complete transparency in government – his #2 priority, right behind Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

So until then, please carry on with the topic of your choice: politics

A little golf with enlightened Hollywood guru Larry David and 2 other white guys.

No wait, that’s not Larry – here he is:

After 5 hours of golf, and a relaxing hot tub, it was time for cocktails and dinner at Val’s waterfront home in Oak Bluffs. After dinner the village held a fireworks display for Lady M, Big Guy and the Wee Wons.

Illuminati Illumination Night in Oak Bluffs

There was supposed to be a photo op, butt much to the disappointment of the trailing press pool, that was cancelled for some reason. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the Stoli on the rocks before and the case of fine Bordeaux that everyone enjoyed with dinner.

So in lieu of the family shot at the fireworks, how about this vintage shot of BO on Val’s deck (before the renovations were completed to bring it up to shadow-president standards).

Or how about this selfie of MO and LIttle Bo?

Okay, it’s not from our vacay either, butt it’s sure better than another one of those biking photos, and it does “pose” a lot of potential for discussion and commentary.

Now I’ve got to go pack since we’re leaving today. We have to get back to Washington to make everything transparent. You know, like the Republican’s War on Obamacare.

Wait a minute! If health insurance is a right…don’t I have a right to choose?